The present invention relates in general to furniture and partition lifting and pertains, more particularly, to a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly intended for use with equipment for lifting furniture, partitions or other articles (hereinafter referred to interchangeably as furniture or partitions) in order to access the floor surface beneath the furniture. The self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly of this invention is an improvement over conventional brackets and bracket assemblies used in association with furniture lifting equipment.
With conventional lifting equipment it is generally necessary to first select a correct bracket for use with a particular piece or pieces of furniture, such as, office partitions. This selection process often requires trial and error and furniture dimensions that vary from nominal dimensions have the potential to create problems for the user of the lifting equipment and the lifting brackets and lifting bracket assemblies.
Selecting the correct bracket requires identifying a bracket or brackets that fits into openings provided in the furniture. The openings more often than not serve another function, however, it remains common place to utilize these almost always present openings in the furniture to lift the furniture; and the bracket or brackets used to utilize these openings for lifting the furniture requires must have sufficient strength and size to support and lift the furniture.
Often a manufacturer or fabricator of lifting equipment provides a plurality of brackets for use with the lifting equipment. The bracket selected for use with a particular partition or piece of furniture may not, however, work properly with another partition or piece of furniture that does not have openings of either the same size or the same spacing as the previous partition lifted or moved in the course of accessing the area beneath the partition.
Each bracket is typically a thin plate with teeth, inserts, extensions or the like extending from an edge of the bracket and shaped for insertion into the furniture openings and then supporting the furniture during lifting. Typically, the manufacturer or fabricator provides the attachment portions for attaching the bracket or brackets or bracket assembly to the lifting equipment.
Ideally, the design of a lifting bracket matches the type and style of both a lifting apparatus used in a particular application, and a piece of furniture, a cubicle partition or other articles found resting on the floor in an office and which require lifting off the floor for the purpose of, among other purposes, the removal and replacement of flooring. However the multitude of opening sizes and spacing of the openings, particularly the spacing of the openings challenges the manufacturer""s or fabricator""s ability to select a single design suitable for all furniture.
Furniture opening spacing becomes particularly critical when attempting to lift two pieces of adjoining furniture. Then the lifting apparatus preferably supports a double bracket assembly as the size of most lifting devices inhibits side-by-side placement of two lifting devices with a single bracket for lifting two adjoining furniture pieces independently yet simultaneously.
Furthermore, the adjoining furniture pieces are usually joined together in some fashion. Thus, it is desirable to lift both of the adjoining pieces of furniture simultaneously with a single lifting device with a double bracket lifting bracket assembly.
However, elevating adjoining furniture pieces from a fixed point causes the two adjoining pieces of furniture, adjoining office space partitions for example, to separate during lifting. Even the sometimes short distance that the furniture needs to be elevated to access the floor under the furniture often causes some separation of the adjoining furniture pieces and, thereby, the separation of the furniture openings into which the brackets are inserted.
A drawback of existing lifting brackets and lifting equipment is the inability to adjust for the separation of the adjoining furniture pieces during the lift and the coming back towards each other during the drop. The present invention overcomes this and other drawbacks of existing furniture lifting equipment.
Another drawback to conventional brackets and bracket assemblies relates to the rigidity of a bracket assembly assembled or fabricated from a pair of brackets and an intermediate member joining the brackets. For example, when the furniture pieces or the openings in the adjoining furniture pieces are damaged or shifted such that the center-to-center distance between the openings in the adjoining furniture pieces has altered from the original distance for which the lifting bracket assembly has been manufactured, then the furniture that is to be lifted has shifted of distorted so as to alter the center-to-center spacing between the openings and the rigidly assembled or fabricated lifting bracket assembly will not fit into the furniture openings as intended due to the now altered spacing of these openings.
The conventional bracket member comprises a single piece metal bracket or a pair of metal lifting brackets, typically manufactured or fabricated from a metal plate member. The lifting apparatus supports the lifting bracket assembly in any one of a number or variety of possible design configurations.
Adjusting the height of the lifting apparatus portion supporting the lifting bracket, brackets or bracket assembly defines the conventional method for adjusting the height of the lifting bracket plate or plates. As the height of the lifting bracket, bracket or bracket assembly changes due to the movement of the lifting apparatus, the insertion members or extensions of the lifting bracket plate which have been inserted into the furniture openings raise or lower the position of the item of furniture.
In a lifting bracket assembly having a plurality of individual lifting brackets, alteration of the furniture lifting opening spacing impedes the desired insertion of the lifting bracket. Once the spacing of the openings in the furniture alters from the original design, then there is often no bracket assembly constructed that fits the now skewed furniture openings sufficiently so as to allow the furniture to be lifted.
Possibly the only positive aspect of this furniture opening spacing shift is that it is usually only a horizontal shift. Therefore, an adjustable assembly is desired that adjusts for a horizontal shift of the spacing or center-to-center distance between the holes or openings in the furniture that are to be used to lift the furniture.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly that is adapted to increase furniture lifting efficiency. With the self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket of this invention furniture lifting productiveness increases due to the self-adjusting characteristic of the invention that allows insertion of the bracket whether or not the pattern of bracket receiving openings formed in the furniture exactly registers with the lifting extensions of the self-adjusting bracket assembly.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly that is manufactured to provide nearly automatic self-adjustment for a variety center-to-center distances between furniture openings for initial insertion of the lifting bracket assembly and as adjoining lifted furniture pieces separate during lifting. Thus, as insertion of the bracket portions of the lifting bracket assembly into the bracket receiving openings associated with the furniture occurs, the bracket insertions members move or do not move in adjustment to the furniture opening spacing in accordance with the actual center-to-center distance between the furniture openings because of the self-adjustment feature of the present invention and the brackets continue to self-adjust as the furniture is lifted and as it is lowered by the furniture lifting equipment.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly that is adapted for use with most furniture lifting equipment. The present invention provides for or can be adapted to provide for attachment to furniture lifting equipment without interference with the self-adjustment assembly of the invention.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly that may be readily interchanged with another self-adjusting bracket assembly of the present invention or with a conventional bracket or bracket assembly as required by the user and the circumstances. The function of the self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly of this invention is not limited by any particular shape of the plates or extension pattern and the present invention is intended for operation with lifting bracket members having different shapes and spaced insertion members in addition to those selected for purposes of illustration and understanding of the present invention.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly that is adapted for interchangeability of either the lifting brackets on the bracket assembly as well as for interchangeability of self-adjusting bracket assemblies on the lifting equipment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly in which a preferred embodiment supports two lifting brackets. The bracket assembly of this invention is adapted to use two identical lifting brackets or different lifting brackets depending upon the shape and pattern of the furniture openings receiving the lifting brackets.
To accomplish the foregoing and other objects of this invention there is provided a self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly for use in cooperation with furniture lifting equipment to raise and lower furniture. The furniture is usually raised to provide access to the floor or flooring underneath the furniture and then lowered once access is no longer required.
In a typical office partition design, the self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly of the present invention is used where each pair of adjoining furniture partitions meet. The furniture lifting equipment lifts one end of each partition while the other ends of each partition remain stationary, thereby resulting in the separation of the adjoining partitions during lifting and a coming together during lowering.
The self-adjusting furniture lifting bracket assembly comprises a self-adjusting bracket assembly having a pair of side members. Each side member may include furniture support portions or extensions.
The individual side member furniture support portions may have any number of furniture supporting extensions of projections. The shape of any of these projections may vary without departing from the scope and intent of the present invention.
In the disclosed embodiment described herein, there is provided a self-adjusting bracket assembly. This assembly incorporates spacers or separators, furniture supporting members, fasteners and a spring-loaded self-adjusting assembly for the furniture supporting members.
Also, in the preferred embodiment the assembly includes a spacer or separator member provided with openings. The spacer mounts on the furniture lifting equipment as illustrated and described, thereby supporting the assembly for use with the furniture lifting equipment and different shaped and dimensioned separator members or spacers may be kept on hand to provide for further accommodation of a variety of furniture designs and in particular the spacing of the openings which receive the brackets for lifting the furniture.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will be better understood and appreciated from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings.